The Old Gringo

"The Old Gringo" ( _es. Gringo Viejo) is a novel written by Carlos Fuentes over a period extending between 1964 and 1984 and finally published in 1985. In 1989 it was made into a film called Old Gringo starring Gregory Peck.

Inspired by the historical disappearance of American writer Ambrose Bierce amidst the chaos of the Mexican Revolution, the novel addresses such themes as death, cultural exchange, and Mexican identity.

Plot

An elderly American writer and journalist for the Hearst media empire decides to leave his old life behind and seek a glorius death in the midst of the Mexican revolution. A widower, whose two sons had earlier committed suicide, this unnamed old man eventually comes across part of the army of Pancho Villa. This particular group, led by General Arroyo, has just liberated a massive land holding which had been owned by the Mirandas, a wealthy landowning family. Arroyo is the mestizo product of the rape of his Indian mother by his Miranda father.

At that same hacienda, the old man meets Harriet Winslow, a woman from Washington D.C. hired to tutor the young Miranda children. However, by the time she arrived there, they had long since fled with their parents from Arroyo's army. At first, she has a patronizing view about the revolutionary army and the Mexican people, saying

"What these people need is education, not rifles. A good scrubbing, followed by a few lessons on how we do things in the United States, and you'd see an end to this chaos.""You're going to civilize them?" the old man asked dryly."Precisely." [Fuentes, Carlos, "The Old Gringo", p.41, translated by Peden, Margaret Sayers. Farrar Straus Giroux, New York, 1985, ISBN 0374530521]

As the novel progresses, Winslow begins to learn to accept the truth of her past, as well as to appreciate the Mexican culture she finds all around her. By the close of the novel, she decides that instead of attempting to change Mexico, as she had early wanted, she wants "to learn to live with Mexico". [Fuentes, Carlos, "The Old Gringo", p.187, translated by Peden, Margaret Sayers. Farrar Straus Giroux, New York, 1985, ISBN 0374530521]

The novel ends with the deaths of the old man and General Arroyo. When the 'old gringo' burns some historical documents as a means of encouraging Arroyo to leave the Miranda household and continue with the revolution, Arroyo responds by murdering him. Later, when Arroyo finally meets up with Pancho Villa's army, he is executed for this crime as a means of preventing any American response.

References